In the pixar movies Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University, the character of Sulley is supposed to be terrifying to children. In real life, the stuffed toy version of Sulley from Build-A-Bear apparently poses enough of a choking hazard to children that it’s been recalled in the U.S. and Canada. [More]

What should be a happy photo of a mom hanging out in the yard with her two boys in their cool new Pixar-themed pool is horribly, terribly, tragically transformed into something much darker, all thanks to an apparent error at the printing press that managed to slip through unnoticed. [More]

The ability to play employers off bids from other companies seeking to snag the best in their fields is an important one. So much so, in fact, that workers in Silicon Valley have filed a lawsuit alleging that some of the industry’s biggest players were involved in a secret anti-poaching pact that kept salaries down and workers stuck where they were. [More]

Many Consumerist readers wrote to Disney about the missing captions in rental editions of the Pixar movie “Up,” either because they were personally affected or they found the omission offensive. In their response, Disney at least acknowledges the unique issue and promises to make up for the mistake of consumers submit proof that they rented “Up.”

Imagine you’re deaf or hard of hearing, and put off watching Pixar’s “Up” until the DVD release. You rent the DVD from Netflix, Redbox, or Blockbuster, and the box or Web listing promises captions. But when you settle in to watch the movie, you discover that there are no captions to be found. Not in any language.

We know, that headline just oozes treacle. But it’s for real! The family friend of a dying child cold-called Pixar’s offices and guessed her way through the phone tree to a live person, then pleaded her case: the child desperately wanted to see Up, but was possibly days away from death and too sick to travel or sit in a movie theater. The next day, a Pixar employee arrived with a DVD of the movie and sat with the family while they watched it. Sometimes people can be really decent to each other.

Pixar’s new movie Wall-E is about (SPOILER ALERT) a crass consumer culture that eventually ruins the planet by completely covering it with pointless garbage. Humanity, unable to consume itself out of an environmental crisis, moves to space, where it endlessly vacations on giant cruise-ship like habitats. The planet is governed by a huge Walmart-esque mega-store called “Buy ‘N Large.” In order to celebrate this anti-consumption message, Disney has apparently been giving out cheap plastic watches, and has launched a “Buy ‘N Large” website where you can buy movie merchandise. [Slog]

Cars don’t use leaded gasoline anymore, but boy, oh boy … do toy companies still use lead paint! This Disney/Pixar branded toy chest is painted with red paint that “contains high levels of lead. Lead is toxic if ingested by young children and can cause adverse health effects.”